Mod Pizza opens in Tacoma Wednesday

Seattle-based chain MOD Pizza will open its second South Sound outpost Wednesday evening near Tacoma Mall in the same building where Northwest burger restaurant Blazing Onion will open.

Seattle natives Scott and Ally Svenson founded MOD in 2008, but it's not their first chain of businesses. Their first foray was when the couple moved to London for Scott’s job in finance. When they couldn’t find a coffee stand, they opened their own. They built Seattle Coffee Company to 65 stores in London, then Starbucks came knocking. They sold their interest in the stores, which Starbucks re-branded as their own, and the family moved back to Seattle. They founded MOD in 2008 in Seattle and the chain has branched out to the suburbs north and east of Seattle. A California store opened this week.

The chain opened the Puyallup MOD Pizza in July. My assessment is that it's pretty good pizza for the economical price, which makes this a family-friendly destination. Pizzas are crackery thin and come with as many toppings as you can jam onto a pizza - for a fixed price of $7.17. Build-your-own salads are a good deal, too. The restaurant advertises customers can add any topping to the salad with no additional charge - and believe me, I put them to the test. I asked for premium ingredients - gorgonzola, asiago, artichokes, fresh basil and sundried tomatoes, mixed greens. I got them all, and with no upcharge. The fixed price salad was $4.47. Order pizza and salads at the counter and find your own table. Sodas are self serve. The atmosphere is casual and quite kid friendly. At the Puyallup restaurant, I had trouble on my visits with the noise level. Loud music and lots of hard surfaces bounced the noise, it was difficult to hear and talk with all the din.

Freebie tip: Free slices for the first 52 customers in line at the Tacoma opening, 5 p.m. Wednesday.

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